Opening Dialogue

It is rather daunting launching a blog, especially if you’ve never written one before. How do you introduce yourself or your topic? Where do you start?

In 2014 I was diagnosed with Stage IV cancer resulting in treatment often referred to as the trifecta by cancer patients – chemotherapy, radiation, and surgery. Needless to say it was a life altering experience that required a reassessment of careers. For twenty-four years I’d worn the uniform of the U.S. Army, for another five I’d been a management director of a computer software company, and following the events on 9/11 I’d served as an independent contractor providing counterintelligence support worldwide. All of these jobs, if not demanding a 24/7 commitment, did require an energy that I no longer possessed. Nonetheless, sitting idle while undergoing treatment was not an option, so to maintain my sanity I turned to writing.

My first book, “Silver Taps,” was published in 2015 by Outskirts Press. It is a personal memoir; a tribute to my alma mater Texas A&M University, and an exploration of my relationship with my father, a veteran of World War II, Korea, and Vietnam who passed away from Alzheimer’s disease. Its positive reception and the enjoyment I found in writing led to my second effort, “Palo Duro,” a historical novel focused on the Indian Wars in the Southern Plains at the end of the nineteenth century. It has just recently been released by Page Publishing.

The two books may seem worlds apart, yet both are connected by the love and respect I had for my father and the love he passed on to me for history and the Old West. Certainly history is not everyone’s cup of tea. Facts, dates, events, and historical figures in and of themselves can be dry sterile material; yet the historical fiction genre allows the writer latitude in bringing a particular historical period and the people involved to life. Similarly, the western may not hold the public’s attention as it once did in cinema or published media, yet it remains a window into our past, the expansion of our borders east to west, and the rugged individualism and entrepreneurship that forged a nation.